This lot is a Limited Edition Leather bound Wisden for the Year 2011. It is very special as it is number 5 of 150.

Wisden 1995 was the first to be produced as a leatherbound limited edition. The 1995 edition was limited to 100 copies. All subsequent editions from 1996 to date have been limited to 150 numbered copies.

Copy numbers 1 to 5 each year have always been presented to that years’ Cricketers of the Year. Copy numbers 6 to 150 are sold (the 2016 edition was priced at £280) with collectors having first option each year on their regular copy number.

However in 2011 Wisden only named Four Cricketers of the Year. At the start of the Cricketers of the Year section in the 2011 edition, Wisden stated that:

“The editor of Wisden 2011 originally chose five Cricketers of the Year, as normal. However, the findings, shortly before this book went to press, of the ICC´s independent tribunal made the selection of one of the five unsustainable. As a result, only four players have been instated.”

And in the preface the editor, Scyld Berry, wrote:

“This year, for the first time, Wisden has four Cricketers of the Year. Originally I selected five, in accordance with custom. Serious allegations of corruption were then made against one of them, and subsequent events rendered his selection in my opinion unsustainable. Since 1890, five has always been the number of the Cricketers of the Year, except when a player has been so colossal as to be honoured on his own, such as WG Grace in 1896. It is sad to break this tradition, but I considered that an exception was unavoidable this year, and it points up the realities that confront the modern game.”

It is widely assumed that Mohammad Amir would have been the 5th Cricketer of the Year in 2011, but Wisden has never confirmed this.

Whoever it would have been would have received this copy number 5 of the leatherbound limited edition.

This is the first ever Wisden leatherbound copy numbered below 6 from any year's limited edition which has been sold rather than presented to a Cricketer of the Year and it is your chance to own it.

It is in near mint condition with Slip Case, it is signed by the editor and a beautiful book with gold page block.

I would heartily recommend the Leather books as they are beautiful and this one has that special touch of being #5.

Please note the book is in storage and may take a week or so to be delivered as the owner has to arrange to get it, which they will do at haste on a successful sale, please bid early if it is needed in a hurry as once the reserve is met (it is low for a book as special as this) the owner will pick it up.

Please see the large photos, they are of my spare 2011 rather than #5 as it is in storage, but it is in mint condition.

Payment via Cheque or Bacs

Postage via special delivery in the UK, £9 , around £20 abroad. (Will be charged at cost).